A Goulais River resident is calling on the province to find a way to curb collisions between vehicles and wildlife on a notorious stretch of highway at the bottom of Mile Hill.
Jason Trevisanut witnessed the aftermath of the latest collision between a vehicle and a moose as he was driving home from Sault Ste. Marie shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday. He said the male driver, who was travelling southbound along Highway 17 at the time of the incident, was shaken yet unscathed.
The moose was killed as a result of the collision, while the truck that struck the moose sustained extensive damage.
“He said he didn’t even have time to put the brakes on, nothing,” Trevisanut recalled, while speaking with SooToday Wednesday. “He said 30 minutes prior to that, he avoided another moose collision — one ran out on the road. And further up the highway, there was another moose killed and a guy in the ditch for that one, too.”
The moose struck and killed in Tuesday night’s collision at the bottom of the Mile Hill has since been removed from the side of the highway, and a sign warning motorists of the potential for moose in the area that was mowed down in the collision has since been propped back up.
There have now been two collisions between vehicles and moose at the bottom of Mile Hill in as many weeks, Trevisanut said, adding that he now worries for his 16-year-old son who recently began driving.
“This is potential for something to happen, so when you go along that stretch you’ve got to just crawl and keep your eyes peeled,” he said.
Trevisanut wants the province to find a way to reduce the number of collisions at the bottom of Mile Hill. He’s seen specialized fencing, overpasses and culverts used in other parts of Canada in order to steer wildlife away from highways, and would like to see something similar along the stretch of Highway 17 that is currently adorned with moose warning signs.
“It’s all swampy area, and it’s just a natural place for them to cross the highway back and forth,” he said.
Ontario introduced a wildlife detection system at the bottom of Mile Hill in 2009 in order to reduce the threat of vehicle collisions with large animals. The system, which used infrared energy beams to detect wildlife and flashing lights to alert motorists, was the first of its kind in Ontario at the time.
But the nearly $300,000 detection system, installed by the province as a pilot project, has since been decommissioned.
“Something needs to be done to avoid a fatality,” Trevisanut said.